Brita01

Bringing this thread into 2020 as it applies to me. I am very introverted and the nursing job that suits me the most is Pediatric Private Duty. One patient, one shift, and if I'm lucky, we have our own room away from the rest of the family where it's quiet. I have tried several different types of nursing and I keep coming back to Private Duty Peds.

It's ok to freak out before experiencing something new, that's what we do when we care about doing a good job. I freaked out before my first homecare peds case because I had been away from the bedside for 6 years. My first peds case was 4 years ago and I'm still working in the field, still getting butterflies when having to take on a new patient that I'm not familiar with. Here is what helps me a lot. Make sure that on your first shift, you orient with the current nurse on the case for the entire shift and take detailed notes. Example: 0800 - Assessment, VS, check/change diaper or brief; 0830 - Start tube feeding (write down formula, rate, and how long); 0900 - Give meds (write down all meds due); 1000- Check diaper, reposition; 1100 - Bath, g-tube care, trach care; 1200 - Start tube feeding, etc, etc, etc. Write down what is done at each time until the end of the shift. At some point during the shift, check your notes against the plan of care and the MAR and thumb through the entire chart to see what's in it. If there is no current nurse on the day you go out and the patient has been with the agency a long time, the parent(s) is used to orienting new nurses to the case. They will take you through the steps of the day and you can take notes from them. I hope this information helps you out on your first case. Welcome to pediatric homecare, these kids will win your hearts.

I used to work night shift, which was the only shift I could deal with due to fewer people being around. Once I decided to leave the hospital, I found my 2 dream jobs. Q/A for a home health agency where I spent my days with my nose buried in charts; then on to Pediatric home care where I take care of one patient and the routine rarely varies.

I work Pediatric home care and we make our own schedules. We work as much as or as little as we want and on the days that we want. Sometimes I like to work holidays for the extra money.

Non-smoking Democrat.

Are you sure she was a nurse? She sounds kind of not quite right in the head. Why would she have to warn the docs she works with to stay away from another hospital? If they were able to choose an ER, you'd think they would gravitate to the one in the hospital where they work. And what kind of real nurse would say that she should get first priority just for being a nurse herself. That's just strange.

The least stressful job for me was private duty. Only one patient to take care of for 8 or 12 hours. Heaven!

It's hard to believe that this thread was started way back in 2002 and people are still finding it. Not much has changed in six years, it seems.

I enjoyed reading this and hearing that three years later you have found your niche. I myself absolutely LOVED private duty. I took care of a lovely girl for 3 years and would have stayed with her until my retirement age if I could have, but she passed on. The family were some of the finest and most loving people I've ever met. After that, other families that I dealt with had some of the same issues that you spoke of and I moved on to another area of nursing. But I will always look back at my private duty nursing job as one of the best and least stressful nursing jobs that I've ever had.

Home health is definitely not for a brand new grad. Even several nurses that we have hired with years of hospital experience were not able to cope well with home health. Like some of the other posters have stated, home health patients have changed so much over the years. They are so much sicker, many come home from the hospital before it's time. When you walk in the door, sometimes after making your assessment, you're rushing to the phone to call 911. And that's happening more and more often. You need those assessment skills that come from experience to make those types of decisions. That's why it's a good idea to get some hospital experience behind you and then enter into home health. And once you're ready to enter into home health, make sure you choose an agency that is willing to orient you properly and provide you with the help you need, not one with a sink or swim mentality.

For $100,000 I'd be able to quit my current job so that I could focus on getting my RN degree without having to work at the same time. For $500,000 I'd quit nursing all together and either go back to accounting, become a vet tech, or do medical transcription. With that extra cash in the bank, I could afford to take a pay cut.

I've searched through all the threads related to ISU and I haven't been able to find the information that I'm looking for. Is there anyone who has actually done their clinicals at their local hospital for ISU? Does ANYONE know all of the states that do not accept ISU as a valid program? I know that Louisiana does not (I called the board) and New York does not (I read it on a thread here). Getting information on this program is like pulling teeth, as ISU's website and the information that they send to you are no help. Better yet, is there anybody here who has actually made it through the program starting as an LPN and is now a RN, BSN? Thanks in advance for any help that you can give me.

I'm an LPN working in the office of a Home Health Agency. I'm the scheduler, HomMed manager, supply manager, and assist the office case managers. Some weekends I work from home taking call, and the on-call bucks are not shabby. I love this job and hope to never ever have to set foot in a hospital again. This job has its ups and downs as well as any other. It can be very hectic when the referrals start rolling in and I'm trying to find enough staff to work. :uhoh21: But it's never boring and the days go by very fast.

I agree with you 100%. I too prefer my own company. But I guess somebody's decided it's some kind of personality disorder. Go figure.

I work in a home health office where I sit behind a desk and work on the computer and talk on the phone ALL day long. My titles are Staffer/HomMed Monitor/Supply Manager. I do all the staffing from the nurses to the therapists. I monitor vital signs on my computer that patients take on a special piece of equipment inside their homes. I'm responsible for the ordering and distribution of all the medical supplies. And in my spare time (ha ha) I act as a backup case manager. I'm never bored and the day just flies by because there's always so much to be done. I've recently started taking call on the weekends which is a sweet gig, because you basically get paid good money to work from home fielding calls and taking referrals.

My last job was as a private duty nurse. I don't miss having to work the night shift ALL the time. I don't miss not having someone to cover my shift when I needed to call in sick. I don't miss not being able to make any money whenever my patient had to be admitted to the hospital. I don't miss having to pay for my own health insurance with lousy benefits because the agency didn't offer any. I miss hands on nursing care. I miss my patient's kind and loving family. I miss my patient who is now with the angels.

I don't understand. You're SUPPOSED to round on patients at least every 2 hours. It's like the law or something. Are you saying you were rounding more often and now they want you to round less often at every 2 hours? Because otherwise, I don't get it.

Who are these people that are telling you this and what are they doing with their own lives? Whenever someone asks me if I'm ever going to get my RN, I ask them if they're ever going to progress in whatever field they are working in. That usually brings the conversation to a halt. I guess it's easier for some people to focus on what somebody else is doing rather than paying attention to themselves.

Very high schizoid, hi obsessive compulsive. Hmmm..... No wonder my personal motto at work is "I hate people." "I hate people." "I hate people."

there are also hourly private duty jobs where you give one on one care to a patient inside his or her home, there are visiting home health positions, and there are home health office positions.

I was an agency nurse and was in an all-day orientation at a hospital I had never worked in before. There were about 15 of us in the class. We found out bits and pieces of what had happened during breaks. And when one of the girls came back from break and announced that one of the towers had collapsed and was gone, we just couldn't believe it. I remember asking, "Gone? What do you mean it's gone? The World Trade Center? What???" After orientation, I couldn't get home fast enough to watch the news.

Several years ago, I got a new understanding for patients who call for the bedpan very frequently. I had a same-day procedure and was getting IV fluids. Suddenly I had to urinate, and I mean immediately. I hit the call light, and a minute later I hit the call light again because the nurse hadn't come yet. Then when I got on the bedpan, I couldn't go! And to make it worse, the nurse was standing there watching. I told her I would call when I was finished so she would stop gawking at me, and finally after concentrating very hard, I was able to go. Can you say relief? The nurse came and emptied the bedpan and moved it out of my reach. Five minutes later, I had to go immediately again. What a PIA I must have been. :chuckle

It's fine if a nurse who knows how to read telemetry is sitting there at all times. But when I did agency I worked in a place where there was no monitor tech and no charge nurse sitting behind the desk (she had her own full load of patients). So there were long periods of time where no one was watching the monitors. And that's just unacceptable.

Our agency also uses the coagucheck machines. We have at least one doctor who prefers PT/INRs done this way and states it in his orders.

i'm probably a little slow today but i don't get it. what was a "mrs." doing as a patient on a pediatric unit?